Auditing and Bookkeeping

CPA’s And BOOKKEEPERS

… are missing opportunities if they aren’t aware of this industry. We used to think that it was only in New York and Los Angeles where the filmmaking was done. Not so, now. A couple of years ago a professor at the University of Tampa’s film department, Tom Garrett, asked me to speak to his students and the local film community. Before going there I put out some blogs in the area with the quote, “Accountants Come Meet Your Film Community”. Over 80 people attended, about 10 of them were students, 6 were local accountants, and the rest were local, active filmmakers! Towards the end of the talk I fielded questions from the audience for the accountants – the accountants happily answered all questions and generated tax/bookkeeping clients, as well as two audits for State Tax Credit certification.

HOT SPOTS OR NOT

Florida doesn’t offer very competitive tax credits; however, this thriving little community of Tampa Bay can turn out 60 people who are actively in the business. So, whether you think you’re in a filmmaking hot spot, or not, check out your local film and television community. I have sent quite a few cast and crew to my personal tax accountant simply because she is familiar with the business – they all needed bookkeeping and income tax services. One producer actually had my tax accountant open a single purpose company for his production, they she did the filing before and after production for the tax credits, the tax returns for the single purpose company, for the producer and his family, etc.

STATE FILM TAX INCENTIVES

Many of the States have some kind of tax incentive to bring film and television production money to their particular State. The simplest site that I have found is at Ease Entertainment – see the video snippet from one of my online courses.

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4 Responses to Auditing and Bookkeeping

I am on the board of a non-profit film production company in Dallas that is made up a consortium of professions from film industry to attorneys to insurance people. We are starting in on the interviewing process of hiring a firm for the accounting firm. My question is what questions should we be asking other than tell me about yourself/your firm.

Thx for the query, Tom. Can you first tell me if you are looking for outside public accountants (i.e. CPA’s licensed to perform audits in the State of Texas), or are you looking for a firm that can contiue to develop your program of producing movies? Unfortunately, one firm can’t do both per the Amer Inst of CPA’s. Once you let me know I’ll start a private emailing.

Good. Here are some questions (outside of the obvious – exposure to non-profits):
– have you been exposed to the film industry before
– if so, in what capacity
– are you aware of the tax grants available to film production companies
– Note: check out this web site http://easeentertainment.com/production-incentives/texas/
– Are you familiar with the industry specific accounting practices, such as the film production budget and Cost Report
– Would you be willing to get trained on the film accounting and auditing specific industry terminology and processes before engaging with us?

Note: here is a quote from the Connecticut Audit Instructions, also very similar to Instructions i the Styates of Louisiana, Michigan and California… “…the auditor must have sufficient knowledge of accounting principles and practices generally recognized in the film, television, commercial and digital media industry.” These States have all had difficulties with auditors who just don’t know the film biz, so they have had to legislate this requirement.

If you meet a firm that you love, and really want to hire, just send them to my series of 4 self-study courses and tell them to do those courses first in order to arrive at the condition in quotes above – they’re not expensive and have excellent testimonials – see http://www.talkfilm.biz/filmaccounting-cpe.htm

Let me know if you’d like me to recommend anybody. Do they need to be local Dallasites?